Rothenburg ob der Tauber

Street view

(Another post that apparently didn't go).

I'm ending up my trip in this amazingly well-preserved (and famous for it) medieval town. Even with a lot of tourists, fewer now than there would have been in summer, it's fun to visit.

Market place from tower

There's more than enough to see and enjoy here, so I'm spending a couple of days (without driving) before heading back to Frankfurt and home.

View from Rathaus tower

This has been such a great trip, with lots of diversity. I'm looking forward to sorting out pictures and doing a more complete reflection on my experiences seeing gardens big and small, plants in public places, travel in general, etc. after I get back to my desktop.

view of town from wall

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Heading home and Jakob's Weg

Way sign

Jakob (St. John)

It's been a great trip, and I found it meaningful to end up with a photo of Jakob (who was a pilgrim, and maybe is St. John? That's what the leader of a city tour said today.)

Rothenburg ob de Tauber was a wonderful place to try to experience what it was like (many centuries ago).

I've been on a bit of a pilgrimage myself, so I've connected with the Jakob's Weg.

These paths connect eventually with the Santiago de Compostela pilgrimage route in Spain.

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A cloud of Monarchs

Monarch on Helianthus

It's been cloudy and cool the last couple of days, but Friday and Saturday were sunny and mild. 

There were clouds of Monarchs and other butterflies visiting the Buddleia and exuberant Helianthus (Swamp Sunflower) in the border that I see from my study window. (The Helianthus hadn't been cut back this year).

Taking a turn outside with Woody (who's recovering from knee surgery and needs to be kept quiet), I enjoyed the show.

There were over 15 Monarchs (it was hard to count) visiting flowers, along with Gulf Fritillaries and Sulfurs.  Quite nice!

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Attracting Damsels & Dragons

Common green darners (Anax junius) mating and
laying eggs under the water’s surface.

Many people have long been interested in birding and butterfly gardening, but with the availability of new dragonfly & damselfly field guides, more folks are now identifying and pursuing these interesting insects. And with their beautiful coloration and fun names like variable dancer, common green darner, eastern pondhawk, little blue drogonlet, how can anyone resist?  Plus they eat mosquitoes!

Learn how to attract these beautiful predators to your landscape on my latest Native Plants & Wildlife Gardens blog post.

Green Gardening Matters,
Ginny Stibolt

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Rothenburg ob der Tauber

I'm ending up my trip in this amazingly well-preserved (and famous for it) medieval town. Even with a lot of tourists, fewer now than there would have been in summer, it's fun to visit. I'm spending a couple of days here before heading back to Frankfurt and home.

This has been such a great trip, with lots of diversity. I'm looking forward to sorting out photos and reflecting on my experiences when I get home.

Posted with Blogsy

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My book is available for preoder

Now available for preorder at amazon.com at a big discount!

Organic Methods Vegetable Gardening in Florida

You can preorder Organic Methods for Vegetable Gardening in Florida from Amazon.com

I will be available for speaking to garden-oriented groups and gardenfests from April through June 2013 in north and north central Florida. My coauthor, Melissa Contreras, will be covering south and south central Florida. Send me an email if you're interested.  gstibolt@sky-bolt.com

Green Gardening Matters,
Ginny Stibolt

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A kitchen garden seen on the road

I turned around and went back to take a picture of this vegetable and flower garden in the Neckar Valley ( traveling between the Schwarzwald and Rothenburg ob der Tauber (a wonderfully well-preserved and reconstructed medieval town.)

Check out the solar hot water panels sheltering the wood pile, with additional panels probably supplying energy for heat ! (This would also be via hot water, I think - there are modern hot water radiator units everywhere I've been during this trip.

With extensive solar panels everywhere, I've been wondering about what exactly they're powering. I passed an Aldi grocery today which had an entire roof of solar panels - presumably that's electricity for the whole store, but I'll need to do some research about this when I get home. Solar is so much more prevalent here - on farm buildings, residences, commercial buildings, etc. along with centralized stations with multiple panels.

And it's interesting, too, to see wind turbines in all sorts of places, some of them quite unlikely.

On another topic, I've been seeing lovely fields of leeks, so I was glad to see these in this garden, too.

A kitchen garden near Horb am Neckar

A kitchen garden near Horb am Neckar

A nice row of leeks

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